Jones, Rebecca, 1739-1817

Rebecca Jones was a Quaker minister from Philadelphia. She was born in Philadelphia, 7mo. 8 (old style), 1739, of pious parents of the Church of England. Her father, William Jones, was a seaman, and was lost on a voyage when Rebecca was a young child. Kary, Jones's mother, opened a school at No. 8 Drinker's Alley, which proved very successful, and she was able to give a careful education to Rebecca and her older brother Daniel. Rebecca never married.

Jones was convinced of Friends' principles at the age of fifteen, and was led to join the Society largely through the influence of Catharine Peyton, an English Friend who visited Philadelphia on a preaching tour in 1754. Upon her mother's death in 1761, Jones took over running the school, along with Hannah Cathrall, who remained a devoted assistant until her retirement in failing health. The school was given up when Rebecca Jones went to England on a preaching tour in 1784, and she eked out a modest income upon her return home by opening a little shop or agency, which her English friends kept supplied with lawns and cambrics and fine cap muslins. She was an intimate friend of John Woolman.

Rebecca Jones was a victim of the yellow fever of 1793, but was nursed back to life by the devoted Doctor Edward Cathrall and her friends, one of whom was Thomas Scattergood. There was an understanding between her and Samuel Emlen that whichever survived, should preach at the other's funeral, and Rebecca preached at the graveside of Samuel on the first day of the year 1800. She herself died 4mo. 10th, 1817.

From the Dictionary of Quaker Biography, Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections.